Odd Integers
by DetectiveAtWork
Summary: The building is quiet now, there is no mischief. Ben misses a friend.


His eyes are staring to split open as warmth comes from a orange source. Something tickles his face. Ben recognizes this sensation, this certainly isn't the first time -or the last time- and so Ben cracks open an eye and smacks his face, expecting it to be covered with goo, or shaving cream. He jerks up.

"Jo-" The warmth is just the sun. He stops and his rock body slumps realizing it was just and itch and the words get caught in his throat. It's useless to call that name in this house anymore. The realization seeps into his rock as he confronts yet another day.

Johnny is dead.

Susan took this very hard, everybody did, but they all understood his sacrifice and that Johnny is the reason that they're standing here today. It's hard, but they do what they have to. They protect this world, so that if some miracle were to happen and Johnny would be here today, he would be able to live in it and enjoy it. He and Johnny may have had their misunderstandings, but he's not gonna lie, he misses the kid.

He's always there, joking, prodding, but he always treated him like everybody else. He always managed to leave him less angry and less self conscious, regardless of the jokes he had said. He sometimes was an egotistical jerk, but deep inside his flames, he had a kind heart. He always saw the best in other people, who weren't evil, and Ben had just started to realize that that flame of his was just a reflection of his emotion. The way he truly was. He didn't have to _die_.

He remembers seeing his face as the hope drained from his eyes, only to replaced by steel fierceness. His words were a measly, _"Flame on,"_ as he attacked. His body engulfed in flame and he swerved and dodged. Ben definitely remembers the guttural sound coming from him as he was hit and startedto fall, thousands of feet. He remembers the body, he was the first there holding him in his arms after finding him saying, "You did good, kid."

Ben's feet hit the floor and he looks over to the doorway, seeing ghosts. He pictures Johnny walking in, saying something completely absurd, only to have Ben chase after him, laughter filling the hallways. There's not much of that anymore.

He hates the fact that there's no young spirit in the tower. Everyone feels old and weary. He needs somebody who at least smiles and laughs only the way a young person can laugh, with all their heart, with glee. Everytime he hears the word 'Pebbles,' he just doesn't know what to do. There's an absence of mischief as well, and it feels so empty. He misses waking up to find a box of 'Fruity Pebbles,' near him and hearing things like, "Looks like that rockslide finally worked, you got little pebbles." He would normally chase him. It takes a lot just to get out of bed now.

Ben misses the days where he could walk into the kitchen and Susan wouldn't be crying and Reed wouldn't be looking so distraught. Nobody smiles anymore, and when they do, it's a distant smile of a distant memory, not something in the present. He wants to see him come into the kitchen, barely dressed because he accidentally burnt his clothes off, telling them a humorous story as he bites into an apple.

Ben thumps to his room, for he had fallen asleep on the couch, and passes a cracked open door, revealing Johnny's room. He pauses and takes a look at the shirts that lie here and there , his beloved action figure set of the four of them, his sheets all rumpled and bed unmade, it's just too normal. The posters are still hung, some of cars and some of the four of them.

He hates that his last memory of Johnny has to be him spitting up blood onto his rock and giving him a shaky smile and saying, "Who's gonna call you pebbles now?" and continue to wheeze on him, jerking with each breath until his last. He won't forget Reed and Susan's faces as they ran over desperately crying, begging him to wake up. Trying to find a solution. Except nothing could be done.

Ben knows he's crazy when he says he'll miss the future. He will miss the days that never come, the battles never fought with his friend. He won't be able to look forward to little moments, when Johnny would make them laugh before battle, little comments that become jokes and stories for the future. He wants to see if the kid would've ever settled down and maybe started a family, so there'd be more to their family. Almost every time he looks at fire he he hears things and sees things that should be said and done, but they won't.

He misses his friend.

He shakes his head, he misses a lot of things, and hates many as well. There is one thing he now hates the most though.

_Odd numbers._

**A/N: so I watched thirty minutes of the first movie and this happens. I really love the friendship between Johnny and Ben and thought, well, what if one of them died? **

**I know I haven't been writing much, because I'm so busy, but I find at certain times I just have something that needs to be written down. I feel kinda selfish when I say this, ****but I write things that I want to read and I want others to read so they can understand my point of view, selfish I know. Plus, it helps me sleep because that way I'm not thinking a lot before bed. This was one of them, it's short I know, but I also write these on my phone. Hopefully you can understand the difficulty. Well, read, review do whatever you like . I like writing I really do, I have wonderful stories planned, so maybe you can just, I don't know, give me something to write? :)**


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